Homophone
A homophone is a word which is pronounced exactly like another word, as in the case of to, too, and two. Another typical example is see and sea (and the letter C''). If the spelling is also the same, it is called a homonym. An example of homonym is ''file which can mean an object or device where data is stored and also a tool. English is especially rich in homophones, and there are hundreds of monosyllabic homophones, especially. However, whether they are "true" homophones may depend on the speaker's accent.Wikipedia, "Phonological history of English fricatives and affricates - Wait-weight merger" For example "moose" and "mouse" are homophones in Scottish English and "tree" and "three" in Irish English but neither would be homophones in Received Pronunciation (RP). Other regional differences include the "r" pronouncing areas that differentiate words that are homophones in RP, such as sought and sort. One group of homophones which never ceases to amuse foreign students is that of the contractions: *''I'd, eyed''; I'll, aisle, isle; he'll, heal, heel; there's, theirs; we'd, weed; we’ll, wheel; who’s, whose *These are the all-time classics which cause severe problems even among native English speakers: it’s, its; they're, there, their; and you're, your. *Only in non-rhotic accents: aren't, aunt Likewise, native English speakers may make mistakes with poly-syllabic homophones such as complement/compliment and principal/principle. Some other common examples As stated above, not all these words will be homophones in all accents. However (and thanks to John Wells for his idea of lexical sets) when grouping words by stressed vowel, we can have dialect independent homophones. Monosyllables We group by stressed vowel, so that all homophones presented here will be valid both in Received Pronunciation and in General American (except when noted). *'/æ/': band, banned; sac, sack; packed, pact; :General American: ant, aunt *'/ɑː/' (Am /æ/): draft, draught; passed, past; :Non-rhotic only: aren't, aunt; *'/aɪ/': buy, by; cite, sight, site; die, dye; dyed, died; eye, I; find, fined; hi, high; higher, hire; I'll, aisle, isle; size, sighs; sighed, side; style, stile;, tied, tide; wine, whine; time, thyme; write, right, rite; *'/aʊ/': flour, flower; hour, our *'/e/': bread, bred; cell, sell; cent, scent, sent; lead (metal), led; leant, lent; read, red; set, sett (hole in the ground) *'/eə/': air, heir; bare, bear; fair, fare; hair, hare; pair, pear; stairs, stares; they're, there, their; there's, theirs; wear, where *'/eɪ/': ate , eight; brake, break; grate, great; made, maid; mail, male; place, plaice; rain, reign; rains, reigns, reins; sail, sale; shake, sheik (also \ʃiːk\); steak, stake; tail, tale; waste, waist; weigh, way; weight, wait; weighed, wade; *'/ɪ/': billed, build; gym, Jim; in, inn; its, it's; which, witch; *'/ɪə/': dear, deer; hear, here; peer, pier *'/iː/': beat, beet; feat, feet; flea, flee; genes, jeans; he'll, heal, heel; meat, meet; peak, peek; read, reed; sweet, suite; scene, seen; steel, steal; team, teem; we'd, weed; week, weak; we’ll, wheel *'/ɒ/': knot, not *'/ɔː/': board, bored; chord, cord; for, four; hoarse, horse; mall, maul; moor, more; pore, pour, poor; your, you're :Non-rhotic only: caught, court; fort, fought; sauce, source; saw, sore; sort, sought *'/əʊ/': broach, brooch; hole, whole; know, no; knows, nose; loan, lone; road, rode, rowed; sew, so, sow; sole, soul *'/ʊ/': wood, would *'/uː/': blew, blue; cue, queue; dew, due; flew, flu; hue, Hugh; knew, new; root, route; threw, through; who's, whose; yew, you *'/ʌ/': none, nun; one, won; son, sun *'/ɜː/': earn, urn; heard, herd; tern, turn Polysyllabic words *aloud, allowed; bolder, boulder; complacent, complaisant; complement, compliment; forego, forgo; gorilla, guerrilla; principal, principle; weather, whether Letters There are several letters of the alphabet that are pronounced like words: *B, be, bee; C, sea, see; I, eye; O, owe; P, pea; Q, queue; R, are; T, tea, tee; U, you; Y, why. References See also *Minimal pair External links *firstschoolyears.com, List of homophones *International Business Times, Utah Blogger Fired After Boss Complained Homophone Blog Post 'Associated School with Homosexuality', 4 August 2014. Category:Pronunciation Category:Spelling